The Code: A Guide to Health and Human Performance

The fastest way to lose your love for running might be to turn every workout into a test of your worth. How do you push yourself to improve without turning something you love into another source of stress? And what happens when injuries or setbacks make you question what you're capable of? In this episode of The Code, Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with running coach Jen Hickman, founder of Perseverance Endurance, to discuss the psychology of behavior change and the role of coaching in building confidence and resilience. With more than two decades of experience in the zoo industry, Jen brings an unexpected perspective on behavior change. Jen shares how running went from being a source of stress relief to another source of pressure, and how this experience shaped her approach to coaching. She and Dr. Fix explore the mental challenges of pursuing performance goals, handling setbacks, and adapting training to life's demands. They also discuss how trust, communication, and small changes in behavior help runners build…

Dr. Andrew Fix planned to work out in the afternoon. By 7:40 p.m., he was still in his garage, squeezing in whatever exercise he had time for. His point is, a short workout beats skipping one because the day didn't go as planned. Perfectionism can make simple goals harder than they need to be. When the plan changes or the timing falls apart, it becomes easy to do nothing. Dr. Andrew Fix shares why done is better than perfect and how a more flexible mindset can help you stay consistent. If you’re wondering how to stop procrastinating, start by lowering the bar enough to take action. A short workout still counts. A small step still moves you forward. Andrew also shares one easy health habit: walking after meals. It can support blood sugar regulation and digestion while giving you a chance to step away from screens and connect with the people around you. Your workout doesn't need to happen at the perfect time or last as long as you planned. Do what you have time for, and move on with your day. Quotes “But this…

The workout that changes your life is the one you’ll actually come back to. So what makes someone stick with fitness while someone else keeps starting over? For coach and personal trainer Jeremy Crawford, the answer often comes down to connection, environment, and whether the approach actually fits your life. Jeremy joins Dr. Andrew Fix to explore why the right coach, gym, or community can make such a difference. They talk about the energy and community that come from group training, the individualized support of personal training, and why it helps to understand what you want from exercise before deciding how you want to train. Are you looking for structure? More connection? Expert guidance? A place where you can turn your brain off and simply follow the workout? They also look at the relationship between coaches and clients. Trust and genuine care matter, but so do healthy boundaries and honest conversations when a relationship no longer feels productive. Ultimately, fitness becomes a long-term investment…

The person you want to become isn’t waiting somewhere in the future. Your choices today decide who shows up. Dr. Andrew Fix shares a simple mindset shift that can change how you approach your health, work, relationships, and everyday habits: stop treating personal growth like a constant effort to fix yourself. Instead, consider the person you want to be and start making choices from that identity today. Who are you telling yourself you are? And are those beliefs making your goals harder to reach? Being someone who takes care of their health, follows through on commitments, or shows genuine interest in the people they love starts with acting in ways that support those qualities now. Andrew also looks at the role your environment plays in reinforcing that identity. The people around you can make consistent choices easier or much harder. This is a reminder to pay attention to both the story you tell yourself and the company you keep. You don’t have to wait until you’ve changed to act like the person you want to…

Communications coach David "Kiwi" Kiwimagi joins Dr. Andrew Fix to explain why unspoken expectations quietly wreck marriages and workplaces alike, and how a few simple frameworks can turn resentment into agreement before it ever takes root. Kiwi built his coaching career on a hard truth learned from his own marriage: most conflict has nothing to do with bad intentions and everything to do with expectations nobody bothered to state out loud. Trouble starts when two people both assume the other one owns a task, or when a conversation begins with no sense of where it's headed. Kiwi walks through his "frame it" method for opening any conversation with a clear time, topic, and outcome, a technique that works as well in a sales call as it does at the end of a long day at home. The most useful idea here might be the three mental loads behind every task: execution, logistics, and the emotional weight of getting something done right. Kiwi uses laundry and dinner as his examples, but the real payoff is a new lens for…

You can't expect to get better at anything you've never actually practiced, and Dr. Andrew Fix explains why performance and practice are two completely different skills. Picture missing shot after shot on a basketball hoop you haven't touched in years. Then getting annoyed at yourself for being rusty. Andrew unpacks the real gap. You have the ability. You skipped the practice. When was the last time you actually practiced the thing you expect yourself to be good at? He explains why golfers who play a few rounds a year never improve, why runners who race every training session tend to get hurt instead of getting faster, and why top athletes spend far more time drilling and reviewing film than competing. The performance is only a small piece of the process. The rest happens in drills and film review. Then he applies the idea to conversations. What changes if you prepare for a hard talk with your kid, your partner, or a client the same way an athlete preps for a big game, instead of hoping the right words show…

Don Dillon endured roughly four years of unexplained seizures and immune collapse during his Navy years, and decades later he built a supplement bar designed to survive the very manufacturing process that destroys most nutrients before they ever reach your mouth. Dillon is the founder and CEO of Sound Foods, and he joins Dr. Fix to unpack the real reason most people quit their supplement routine within 90 days. It's not a lack of discipline. Pills are unpleasant, powders are a hassle, and the "convenient" alternatives on shelves rely on heat and sugar that wreck the nutrients they're supposed to deliver. So what happens when a bar can hold its shape without any of that? Sound Foods uses an ultrasonic manufacturing process that binds ingredients cold and skips the sugar syrups and gums that give most protein bars their gummy, overly sweet texture. The result tastes closer to a crumbly cookie, and it opens the door to putting real, functional doses of nutrients like creatine or nootropics into something people…

Two runners can have identical knee pain and need completely different fixes, and Dr. Andrew Fix explains why chasing generic advice off YouTube usually leaves the real problem untouched. The same symptom can point to a different injury, and even the same injury can have a different cause. One runner's knee pain might come from a tendon pushed past its capacity by too much training volume too fast, while another's identical pain traces back to a stiff ankle or weak hip forcing the knee to compensate for something else entirely. Hand both runners the same two exercises and you're guessing. That distinction drives his frustration with generic internet fixes. Quiet the symptoms without addressing the underlying deficit and they come back. The person then assumes they did something wrong, when the fix was incomplete from the start. There's also a case for urgency worth sitting with. Addressing an injury early costs less time and money, and needs less intensive treatment, than waiting until it forces your hand.…

Amanda Theodore is training for the 2028 Olympic Trials marathon with Pop-Tarts before most runs and a hard lesson about what happens when athletes eat too little instead of too much. Amanda joins Dr. Andrew Fix for a conversation about marathon training that moves well past splits and mileage logs. She talks openly about the eating disorder she developed at Duke, the femoral neck stress fracture that followed, and why she waited until she had recovered from disordered eating before starting her path toward becoming a sports dietitian. What does recovery actually look like when your sport depends on discipline around eating? For Amanda, it means dropping the all-or-nothing mindset entirely. Dessert most days, a gluten-free Pop Tart before runs, a four-to-one carb-to-protein shake after them. The science stays in place. The rigidity does not. She and Dr. Fix dig into why under-fueling carries far greater risk than over-fueling, especially for young athletes still figuring out what their bodies need, and why…

From behind the wheel on a travel day fueled by too little sleep and too much airport food, Dr. Andrew Fix breaks down what it takes to protect your training, nutrition, and sanity when travel throws your routine into chaos. Two flights, two little ones, and a 2 a.m. wake-up call set the stage for a candid look at what happens when the ideal routine falls apart under the weight of travel. Andrew shares how he and his wife handled beer, pizza, and broken sleep without spiraling, and why he refuses to let his wearable data dictate his mood the morning after a rough travel day. Consistency on the road might be the workouts you squeeze in, the food choices you make at the airport, or how fast you get back to normal once you land. Between packed protein shakes, two gym sessions squeezed in while visiting family, and an honest take on why he won't stress over a bad recovery score, Andrew makes the case for intuitive movement and eating over rigid rules. He closes with a challenge worth sitting with before your…

Mental performance coach Stacy Ingram reveals why teen athletes with the most talent still hit a wall when they haven't trained the mental side. Talent gets an athlete to the starting line, but mental toughness is what decides who's still standing at the finish. Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with Stacy, founder of Catalyst Mental Performance, to explore why so many young athletes build their entire mindset around results and what happens when injury, a slump, or the end of a season pulls that identity out from under them. Ingram breaks down her IGNITE framework and explains why the difference between coaching and therapy matters more than most people realize. She and Fix dig into a question worth sitting with: what actually happens in your brain and body when the pressure is highest, and are you training for that moment or just hoping to survive it? From free throw lines to final exams to high pressure moments at work, the conversation makes a compelling case that nervous system regulation and self-talk are…

Dr. Andrew Fix pushed his body through a full HYROX simulation in the Colorado heat and walked away with a hard lesson about pacing that every first-timer needs to hear before race day. What happens when a plan built on paper meets an actual clock, real heat, and eight stations back-to-back? Andrew found out firsthand at a HYROX simulation held with the team from CrossFit Falcon View. He went out too fast on the ski erg, a decision that cost him on the run that followed, and the pattern repeated throughout the event. Running makes up the majority of HYROX, and it rarely happens on fresh legs, so Andrew breaks down why compromised running deserves a real spot in training plans rather than an afterthought. Fueling gets its own moment too. A single gel packet, taken with intention rather than panic, made a measurable difference in how he handled the back half of the event. Preparing for something he'd never done before came down to one move. Run the simulation, feel the heart rate spike, and test the fueling…

Dr. Andrew Fix once called HYROX dumb, so why did he sign up for the hardest fitness competition of his life anyway? Dr. Andrew Fix records this episode from the parking lot of REI's Denver flagship, prepping for a Run Denver Day event, and uses the moment to talk through his decision to race HYROX this November. He breaks down what the competition actually involves: eight one-kilometer runs split by eight functional stations, sled pushes, wall balls, rowing, and more, all standardized across every city in the world. That global consistency is part of what has turned HYROX into one of the fastest-growing fitness competitions anywhere, but Andrew spends most of the episode on something bigger than the race itself. What happens to your training when nothing is on the calendar? He argues that a real goal, with a real race date attached, changes the entire relationship between effort and motivation. He's honest about the parts of HYROX that make him nervous, including how his legs will hold up during the final…

Running won't outrun your trauma, and therapist Don Harris explains why the fastest people at the finish line are often the ones still carrying the most weight. Don Harris has built a practice and a run club around the same idea: movement helps, but connection does the deeper work. As a therapist who works with both teenagers and adults, he's learned that the question "What's wrong with you?" rarely gets anyone anywhere. "What happened to you?" does. That shift shows up everywhere in this conversation, from how he counsels students to how he built Embrace the Pace, the Denver run club he founded around self-love, wellness, community, and movement rather than pace times. What happens when you stop treating exercise as an escape hatch and start treating it as one piece of a bigger picture? Don and Andrew dig into that question from a few angles, comparing the pull of running with others against the clarity that comes from running alone, and asking why the best ideas seem to show up mid-run. If you had to shop…

What happens to your identity the day you can no longer do the thing you built it on? Dr. Andrew Fix reflects on a recent 5K to explore a question most people avoid. Are you measuring your worth against a version of yourself that no longer exists? He breaks down why running a race and comparing the result to an old personal record ignores everything that has changed along the way, from injuries and surgeries to the demands of raising a family. A little perspective changes the whole picture. The conversation moves beyond running into something bigger. Why do so many people introduce themselves through a job title or a sport they used to play? Dr. Fix shares an analogy he loves, building your identity on a single role or activity is like standing on a football. It feels solid until the moment it isn't. He also calls out a pattern he sees constantly in his practice. People say they used to play softball or throw the ball with their kids, but their shoulder or knee stops them now. Is that really the injury…

Ben Braverman dropped from 240 pounds and a couple of prescriptions to a sub-3:40 marathon, and he says the real transformation happened somewhere between his ears. Ben joins Dr. Andrew Fix to talk about what actually changes when someone moves from the far end of the wellness spectrum toward something closer to optimization. His story starts with running for beginners in its truest form: a guy on a treadmill who couldn't run a mile, slowly building toward a marathon a few years later. The physical numbers are real: weight loss, a faster marathon, and blood pressure readings that finally started moving in the right direction. But Ben keeps circling back to something harder to quantify. He calls it mental clarity, the sense that decisions got easier, stress got more manageable, and his work and relationships improved almost as a side effect of taking care of his body. What does it actually feel like to operate without a constant mental fog? And how much of that fog do most people simply accept as normal…

The real test of motivation begins in the morning when life gives you another reason to quit. Motivation, drive, and aging all meet in one honest question. What keeps you moving when your body feels different, the news is hard, or the next step feels heavier than usual? In this episode of The Code, Dr. Andrew Fix reflects on a conversation with a client who felt discouraged after receiving difficult medical updates, and that conversation led to a larger discussion about resilience and the deeper reasons we keep showing up for our health. Andrew talks about the difference between outside pressure and internal drive. A coach, a goal, or a desired outcome can help for a while, but lasting motivation usually comes from something more personal. Maybe you want to stay active with your kids or grandkids. Maybe you want to travel with your spouse. Maybe you want to age with strength, independence, and energy. What reason feels strong enough to bring you back on the days you would rather stop? This episode reframes…

Red and near-infrared light may be the most underestimated recovery tool in your environment, and the science behind what it actually does inside your cells is far more compelling than the wellness industry gives it credit for. Scott Chaverri didn't set out to build one of the leading red light therapy companies in the country. He was a burnt-out caregiver looking for anything that would help him sleep and function after two years of watching his son fight cancer. He found red light therapy in 2017 and noticed real changes. When the price of adding more panels shocked him, he decided to build his own. Mito Red Light did a million dollars in sales its first year. The science behind photobiomodulation is worth understanding. Red and near-infrared wavelengths penetrate several centimeters into the body and act directly on the mitochondria, accelerating ATP production and triggering downstream effects that include better circulation, reduced inflammation, and a meaningful boost in cellular melatonin. A study on…

That tight hamstring you've been stretching might be your nervous system asking for something else entirely. When pain shows up in one place, the source is often somewhere else. Dr. Andrew Fix walks through a real patient case from Physio Room where a woman who was experiencing persistent pain in her hamstring had been doing what most people do: stretching it out and hoping mobility work would eventually help. The sciatic nerve originates from the lowest nerve roots of the lumbar spine, and when those roots get irritated, the nerve signals the hamstring to hold protective tension. What feels like tightness is the nervous system protecting itself. Stretching works against that response. In many cases like this one, the root cause is a lack of spinal stability. Without adequate muscular control around the pelvis and lumbar spine, gravity loads the vertebral joints and compresses the nerve roots every time you sit or stand. Dr. Fix explains how positional testing revealed exactly this pattern: her hamstring…

The secret to staying consistent might be hiding in your backyard. Most people quit their fitness routines not because they lack discipline, but because progress is invisible in the short term. We live in a world wired for instant gratification, and when weeks of hard work in the gym produce no visible results, that invisibility is defeating. Yard work offers a useful contrast. Pull a weed, see the bare ground. Mow a strip of lawn, see exactly what you've covered. The feedback is immediate, and that immediacy does something powerful for motivation. Dr. Andrew Fix uses that observation as a jumping-off point for a bigger question: how do you stay motivated when the progress you're working toward won't show up for weeks or months? His answer has less to do with willpower than with learning to notice smaller signals along the way. What went right today, even if the day itself felt like a loss? What did you learn from the thing that didn't work out? The people who eventually reach their goals tend to be the ones…

When the question every injured runner is afraid to ask, "Do I have to stop?", finally gets a straight answer, it turns out the real story has less to do with the pain itself and more to do with everything the runner wasn't tracking. Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with Dr. Vikash Sharma, DPT, founder of Perfect Stride Physical Therapy in New York, to talk through managing running injuries, avoiding stress fractures, and building a smart return to running after time off. Stress fractures get missed more often than they should, and the clue is usually hiding in a two-minute conversation about nutrition and training load. Has your mileage gone up? Has your food intake kept pace? For a lot of runners, the answer to that second question is no. For soft tissue injuries, Sharma's approach is less about stopping and more about finding a sustainable baseline, trimming the run, filling the rest with cross-training, and using that window to build the strength and mobility that likely broke down first. The conversation also…

Most runners are one bad training week away from an injury they never saw coming, and the way they think about shoes, strength, and recovery is probably making that worse. Dr. Drew Short specializes in working with runners at PhysioRoom, and his approach to running injury recovery starts somewhere most people wouldn't expect: months back in an athlete's training log. The culprit behind most injuries isn't a single bad run. It's accumulated load, under-fueling, or a strength gap that quietly grew until something gave out. When the mechanical picture looks clean, Drew digs deeper, sometimes all the way to blood work and nutritional consults. Multiple tendon issues flaring up in different parts of the body at once? That's a systemic story, not a mechanical one. The calf conversation is worth sitting with. Runners stretch it religiously and almost never strengthen it the way running actually demands. The soleus does significant work during each stride, but only when the knee is bent, which is almost never how…

Sleep isn't a luxury you negotiate with; it's the biological foundation every other health habit is built on, and most people are getting far less of it than they think. Dr. Andrew Fix revisits one of the show's most foundational episodes for Better Sleep Month, and the timing feels personal. A new baby at home has a way of clarifying just how much everything falls apart when sleep does. Drawing from Matthew Walker's landmark book Why We Sleep, this episode makes a compelling case that sleep deprivation isn't just fatigue. It's a direct line to cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, weight gain, and a compromised immune system. Here's a question worth sitting with: if you went to bed at 10 and woke up at 6, did you actually get eight hours of sleep? Probably not. Time in bed and time asleep are not the same thing, and that gap is where most people are quietly losing ground. Dr. Fix gets practical without being prescriptive. A consistent sleep schedule, a cooler and darker room, cutting caffeine earlier…

Aging gets blamed for a lot of things that may have more to do with disuse, fear, and incomplete advice than the number of candles on your birthday cake. Dr. Andrew Fix talks with physical therapist Eileen Kopsaftis about pain, aging, and strength through a lens that challenges the usual story of decline. Eileen questions the idea that weakness, balance issues, loss of independence, and chronic pain are simply part of getting older. Some of these changes may be common, but are they truly normal? Andrew and Eileen unpack why pain often points to a bigger movement story. A shoulder issue may trace back to an ankle. Foot pain may connect to the hips. A limitation may have less to do with the part that hurts and more to do with the way the whole body works together. They also talk about strength, stairs, muscle loss, and the subtle ways convenience can speed up physical decline. What happens when we stop taking the stairs? How much of aging is shaped by what we believe our bodies are capable of? This episode is…

An injury can sideline one limb without giving the rest of your body permission to quit. When you’re in a sling, boot, or on crutches, the instinct is often to stop everything until you’re “cleared.” But what does that pause really cost? In this episode of The Code, Dr. Andrew Fix breaks down cross education and why training the uninjured side of the body can help preserve strength, limit atrophy, and support recovery on the injured side. This conversation challenges the all-or-nothing mindset that often shows up after injury or surgery. Many people are told what not to do, but not what they can still do. That missing guidance can lead to lost habits, lower motivation, and a harder return to activity. With the right modifications, safe movement can keep the body and brain connected to the larger goal. The bigger message is simple: recovery does not have to mean disappearing from your routines, your community, or your goals. Consistency still matters. And sometimes the best question after an injury is not,…

Hope is a beautiful liar when it convinces you that tomorrow will change what you refused to change today. Dr. Andrew Fix offers a clear challenge to anyone who has been leaning a little too hard on hope. This episode asks what happens when hope feels good but preparation never follows and action never comes. Whether the issue is your health, your habits, your pain, or your relationships, how long can you expect change without doing something that supports it? Across the conversation, he brings the focus back to personal responsibility in a way that feels honest and practical. What are you trusting time to fix? What outcome do you say you want, and what are you doing right now to make it more likely? The message is simple, but it lands: hope has value, yet real progress asks for preparation and action. There is also a grounded reminder here about how life actually works. No one is perfectly balanced in every season, and some areas will get more attention than others. Still, the parts of life we neglect…

For athletes and high performers, the toughest opponent is often the voice in your own head. Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with Krista Juerling of Speakstone Counseling for a thoughtful conversation about mental performance, identity, and the pressure that can come with chasing excellence. What happens when the habits that fuel success also leave you depleted? Who are you when an injury, career shift, or major life change forces you to rethink the role that once defined you? Krista brings a clear and compassionate perspective to the way high performers relate to themselves. She unpacks why self-criticism can feel useful even when it chips away at confidence, and why support can feel risky for people who have built their lives around staying sharp, staying strong, and staying ahead. The conversation also explores the difference between treating symptoms and getting honest about the deeper patterns underneath them. This is a grounded look at the mental side of performance and the very human side of ambition. You…

A lot of workouts leave you exhausted, but the real question is whether they actually make you stronger. Dr. Andrew Fix takes aim at one of the easiest traps in strength training: mistaking effort for progress. Feeling wiped out after a session can be satisfying, but that does not always mean your training is building useful strength. He makes the case for more intentional lifting by choosing loads that fit the reps, taking enough rest, and paying attention to whether you are truly challenging yourself. The conversation also gets at a bigger idea about capacity. How different does life feel when your body is prepared for real physical demands? What shifts when being strong has less to do with appearance and more to do with resilience, confidence, and durability? It is a grounded reminder that strength training can shape far more than what happens in the gym. Quotes “You can never go wrong getting strong.”(01:40 | Dr. Andrew Fix) “If they were training for strength, you need to be picking a rep range or a…

The hardest part of growth is not finding the next big move; it is staying loyal to the basics when your ego wants a shortcut. Backup plans can become excuses. Change creates pressure. Discomfort has a way of showing you whether you are serious about growth or just interested in the idea of it. Dr. Andrew Fix reflects on a recent conference and brings the lesson home in a clear way: most progress comes from doing the basic things well and doing them long enough to matter. He also digs into a harder question. Who are you around, and are those people pushing you to raise your standard? This conversation is a reminder that real growth usually feels uncomfortable before it feels rewarding, and the people who move forward are the ones who keep getting back up. Quotes “There is no magic formula. There's no magic bullet. There's no Harry Potter magic wand that is gonna help you get from point A to point B or accomplish whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish, you need to master the fundamentals. You need to…

One back injury turns into a stark reckoning with pain, recovery, and the life you stop postponing when your body forces you to pay attention. Alex Kaminsky joins Dr. Andrew Fix for a conversation about what happens when a sudden setback makes everything feel immediate. Her story begins with a serious back injury and emergency surgery, but the heart of this episode is the comeback that followed. What do you notice when pain finally lifts? What becomes clear when your body will no longer let you push past the warning signs? Alex reflects on how quickly ordinary things can take on new meaning when movement, comfort, and independence no longer feel guaranteed. They also get honest about recovery in a way that feels useful and real. Surgery brought relief, but it did not remove the work. Healing asks for patience, discipline, and a willingness to face the weak spots you may have ignored before. This conversation lands on something bigger than rehab alone: gratitude that feels grounded, a sharper respect for…

What feels inconvenient, awkward, or disruptive today may be the exact pressure that pushes your life into its next shape. As Dr. Andrew Fix prepares to leave the home where this chapter of The Code began, he uses the moment to reflect on how quickly life changes and what growth actually asks of us. A move, an early workout, a packed house, a full calendar. None of it feels especially polished. Yet that is exactly where the message lands. Progress often shows up in ordinary moments that ask for more than comfort can give. This conversation circles around a simple question: what becomes possible when you do the thing you almost talked yourself out of? Dr. Fix shares how small choices to show up can lead to unexpected connections, fresh perspective, and the kind of momentum that does not come from staying where life feels easy. He also makes space for something many people skip. Reflection. How often do you stop long enough to notice how far you have come? How often do you give yourself credit for the quiet…

What if the missing piece in better movement and healthier feet isn’t your shoes at all? Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with trainer and Aira Basics founder Rachel Ridgeway to unpack a surprisingly overlooked factor in foot health: socks. After switching to barefoot-style footwear, Rachel noticed less discomfort in workouts and a very different physical experience during pregnancy. One question kept surfacing. If shoes can reshape the foot, what role do socks play? That curiosity led Rachel to design a sock that respects the natural shape of the foot without forcing people into toe socks. She shares the behind-the-scenes process of bringing the idea to life, from fabric blends to seam placement and durability testing. The goal was simple in theory but complex in execution: create a sock that allows the foot to spread and move without sacrificing comfort or everyday practicality. Andrew adds the clinical lens throughout the conversation. The foot contains dozens of joints and muscles that influence balance,…

Your plans may look perfect on paper, yet preparation is what determines whether your goals survive the moment real life hits. In this short solo episode, Dr. Andrew Fix reflects on the gap between planning and preparation. Many people enjoy creating plans because they bring clarity and structure. Yet plans often fall apart when circumstances change. Preparation is what makes those intentions durable. It turns ideas into systems that hold up when life gets messy. Dr. Fix explains that planning creates direction, but preparation removes friction. A simple example shows the difference. You may intend to eat healthy during the week. If lunch arrives and nothing is ready, convenience usually wins. Preparation removes that last-minute decision and supports the outcome you wanted from the start. The conversation also highlights the value of action. People who begin doing often move ahead faster than those who spend endless time refining a plan. Experience grows through action, and momentum builds through small…

Your mattress may be the most important performance tool in your life and most people are choosing it based on marketing instead of measurable impact on sleep, recovery, and long-term health. Sleep drives everything. Cognitive sharpness. Physical recovery. Emotional regulation. Longevity. Yet most people approach mattress shopping with guesswork and brand promises rather than clear performance criteria. Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with Derek Hales, founder of NapLab, to unpack how better sleep starts with better decisions about what you lie on every night. They move past hype and focus on outcomes. Are you waking up sore? Do you feel restored in the morning? Is your mattress actually supporting your body type and sleep position? Derek shares practical insights from testing hundreds of mattresses and consulting with thousands of sleepers, including why medium-firm works for most people, how couples can solve conflicting firmness preferences, and why mattress weight may be one of the simplest indicators of build…

Most of your stress does not come from the situation itself. It comes from your refusal to accept what you cannot control. In this episode, Dr. Andrew Fix sharpens the distinction between inputs and outcomes. You can prepare, act with integrity, and make thoughtful decisions. You cannot dictate how the market responds, how other people choose, or how circumstances unfold. Stress escalates when we pour energy into results that were never ours to command. A simple filter brings clarity: Is this within my control, within someone else’s control, or outside of anyone’s control? If it is not fully yours, the work becomes managing your response instead of chasing certainty. Another thread runs through the conversation. Many of the things that spike our stress are inconveniences rather than true crises. Discomfort feels urgent. Uncertainty feels personal. Yet most of it is temporary and survivable. When you tolerate inconvenience and redirect your focus toward what you can control, resilience strengthens. Control…

What if the simplest way to build strength, improve endurance, and sharpen your mind is already sitting in your closet as an old backpack? Rucking sounds almost too simple to matter. Add weight to a walk and head outside. Yet in this conversation, Dr. Andrew Fix and registered dietitian and RuckFit author Kayla Girgen make a compelling case that rucking may be one of the most practical tools for long-term health. It builds strength, supports bone density, elevates heart rate, and challenges posture without the joint stress that sidelines so many active adults. The deeper insight centers on sustainability. How often do we abandon fitness because we cannot execute the perfect plan? Kayla shares how rucking helped her move beyond all-or-nothing thinking and build consistency. Weight and distance can scale with your season of life. A stroller walk becomes training. A short neighborhood loop becomes meaningful work. When paired with thoughtful nutrition and simple lifestyle shifts like better sleep and stress…

Most people try to be more present by forcing focus when the real leverage comes from how you transition between moments rather than what you do inside them. In this episode, Dr. Andrew Fix reframes presence as a skill built through transitions rather than effort alone. When work spills into home or one conversation runs straight into the next, stress builds quietly and attention thins out. The issue is rarely motivation. It is the absence of buffer time that allows the mind to reset before moving forward. Dr. Fix makes the case for protecting small pauses that most people rush past. A minute in the car before walking inside. A breath before responding instead of reacting. A short buffer between meetings that creates space to listen rather than solve. These moments close one chapter before the next begins. What changes when you stop carrying mental residue from task to task? How might your relationships shift if you gave presence priority over speed? The message is simple and grounded. Transitions deserve…

A simple shift from “I have to” to “I get to” can change how you experience everything from daily obligations to long-term endurance in life and health. Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with mindset coach and author Chris Cullen to explore how the words you use shape your mindset and influence the perspective you bring to everyday demands. What begins as a subtle language change opens into a broader conversation about choice, presence, and how people respond when life feels heavy or relentless. Chris shares how “I get to” emerged during some of his most challenging physical and mental moments and why it became a practical way to keep moving forward when motivation disappeared. The discussion also unpacks why this shift can feel surprisingly difficult. Our brains are wired to scan for threat and rush ahead, which makes presence an intentional practice rather than a default. How often do you move through the day without noticing it? What changes when you pause long enough to choose a second thought that creates space…

Fitness does not fall apart when routines change but it does reveal whether your habits are built on consistency or convenience. Traveling has a way of exposing what really supports fitness and weight loss when normal routines disappear. This episode of The Code looks at how movement, food choices, and daily habits hold up when life feels full and unpredictable. Dr. Andrew Fix draws from a recent family trip to show how disrupted schedules tend to reveal weak points in routines rather than undo progress. Travel becomes a useful lens for understanding which habits still matter when time, energy, and predictability are limited. The conversation clears up common misconceptions around fat loss and exercise, including the belief that working a specific body part leads to targeted weight loss. Andrew explains why full-body strength work, consistent movement, sleep, recovery, and food choices shape body composition far more than isolated exercises. He also challenges gym comfort zones and repetitive routines, then…

If you want more energy, faster recovery, and better performance in the gym and in daily life, the way you fuel your body deserves as much attention as the way you train it. This conversation looks at nutrition through a performance lens, with insights that apply whether you are training for the gym, long workdays, or full days of skiing in the mountains. Dr. Andrew Fix is joined by Katie Hardie, a board-certified holistic nutritionist and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, to talk about how food choices shape energy, recovery, focus, and consistency, and why many people struggle to see results even when they believe they are eating well. The discussion moves beyond calorie counts and into how digestion, stress, and food quality quietly influence how your body shows up day after day. Katie shares a grounded approach to performance nutrition that prioritizes meals you can repeat and enjoy. They explore why food has to taste good to be sustainable, how to learn what balance of protein, fats, and…

When life blows up your routine with sickness, sleepless nights, and missed workouts, this episode reframes resolutions and habits as practical commitments you protect on your calendar rather than promises you hope to keep. Dr. Andrew Fix shares a simple truth most people avoid. Consistency does not come from perfect conditions or endless motivation. It comes from deciding what matters and building habits that can survive real life. When routines fall apart, the answer is not guilt or starting over. It is choosing structure that works even when things feel messy. Why do healthy habits disappear when life gets busy? What changes when your resolutions stop living in your head and start living on your schedule? The episode challenges the idea that routines need to look impressive to work and makes the case for habits that fit the season you are actually in. If you are tired of feeling off track every time life gets chaotic, this episode offers a grounded way forward. Decide what matters, put it on the calendar,…

Many high performers blame stress or burnout for feeling off when the real drain on their sleep focus and relationships is hiding in plain sight inside their nightly drinking habits and the broader lifestyle choices tied to alcohol. James Swanwick joins Dr. Andrew Fix to question the belief that alcohol only becomes an issue at the extreme. He reflects on years of socially acceptable drinking that slowly eroded his energy clarity and presence until the cost could no longer be ignored and a lasting shift felt necessary. The conversation explores what alcohol does beneath the surface, starting with sleep and rippling into mood focus cravings and connection at home. When recovery suffers everything else follows. How often do we point to work pressure or discipline when the issue starts the night before? What changes when rest, clarity and patience return? Rather than prescribing rigid rules Swanwick encourages awareness, experimentation and choice. Track the data. Notice the patterns. Pay attention to how you…

Most exercise and fitness plans fail the moment real life gets in the way, but training around how the body is built to move creates strength that holds up no matter how busy the gym or unpredictable your schedule becomes. Better results in training do not come from more complicated programs or chasing the perfect lifting routine. They come from understanding how the body is meant to move and training those patterns with consistency. When squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, carrying, rotating, and absorbing force become the focus, workouts stop feeling fragile and start working in the context of real life. The perspective here is long-term. Smart lifting and strength work support bone health, muscle mass, energy, and the ability to respond when life demands quick or unexpected movement. What gets lost when those capacities are no longer trained? What quietly fades when movement becomes narrow or cautious? The takeaway is steady and practical. When plans fall apart, the answer is not starting over or doing…

Waiting for the new year to take your health seriously is a quiet gamble with your future that too many people make without realizing what it costs. This conversation challenges the way we think about health, resolution culture, and the pressure to set big goals tied to a date on the calendar. Dr. Andrew Fix makes a clear case for starting now rather than postponing meaningful health decisions until January. When resolutions become delays, even the best goals lose their power before they ever begin. The episode reframes health through the lens of health span rather than longevity alone. What does it mean to stay capable and clear for as many years as possible? How do small choices around sleep, movement, and nutrition shape that outcome? The focus stays practical and realistic without extreme plans or rigid routines. At its core, this episode links personal health to the people who matter most. Taking care of yourself protects your ability to show up for your family and your life. If your health determines…

Walking can become a cultural force for better health when the Black community is given tools that make prevention visible, shared, and rooted in daily life. Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with Kwame Terra, founder of bEHR Health, for a conversation that reframes health as something you can understand, track, and take ownership of in real time. Kwame shares why bEHR Health was built around a live health score, how health literacy shapes long-term outcomes, and why prevention has to feel relevant to everyday life rather than abstract medical advice. The discussion moves beyond individual behavior to examine how access, stress, and environment quietly shape health over decades, especially within the Black community. Walking becomes an unexpected centerpiece of the episode, both as a practical entry point to better health and as a catalyst for connection and culture change. Kwame reflects on setting a world record for steps in a month and what surprised him most about the physical and mental impact. How does…

Training only moves forward when you know how to pivot on the days your body feels off, and smart adjustments matter more than any single heavy lift. Dr. Andrew Fix uses a real morning in the gym to unpack a familiar question for anyone who follows a training plan: what do you do when back pain or tightness shows up right as you’re trying to stay consistent with your fitness goals? He talks through judgment calls that keep progress intact without forcing painful reps or drifting into avoidance. The message lands on a simple truth. Consistency wins. One perfect session never matches the value of showing up again tomorrow. So how do you decide when to scale or swap movements or shift the intention of the work you planned? How do you stay honest about discomfort without letting it take over the whole day? Andrew brings a grounded mindset that supports long-term training and everyday life. The reminder sits at the core of his story. Movement still matters on the days that feel inconvenient, and the athletes who…

That first jolt of pain can throw anyone off, and knowing where to start can be the difference between a quick fix and a lingering problem. Dr. Andrew Fix takes a closer look at what really happens in that early moment of pain and how a thoughtful approach to injury can shift everything. He explains why your own observations often hold the first clues and how simple steps can help you understand whether the issue needs light attention or a more structured plan. What can the timing of the discomfort tell you? How often do we focus on the sore spot when the real problem sits somewhere else entirely? Andrew also talks about the value of asking the people who see you move every week since they often notice patterns you miss. And when discomfort refuses to fade, he makes a strong case for getting help from someone who understands true management of movement and load rather than relying on quick fixes that never reach the root. The episode centers on one idea: pay attention early and seek guidance that actually…

Midlife health takes on a whole new meaning as Dr. Mona Fahoum breaks down what really happens to women’s hormones and how to stay strong, clear headed and resilient through every shift. Dr. Mona joins Dr. Andrew Fix for a grounded conversation on Menopause and the years leading up to it, shedding light on symptoms that often feel confusing or disconnected. She explains how Naturopathic Medicine gives women a fuller view of hormone health, linking estrogen, progesterone and testosterone to the energy dips, sleep changes and joint issues so many women struggle to name. The question that sits underneath much of the episode: how do you stay rooted in your life when your body keeps shifting the rules? They talk through her “three legged stool” of nutrition, movement and hormone support as a steady framework for long term strength. Mona also breaks down Hormone Replacement Therapy in a clear, non-sensational way so women can understand where bioidentical hormones fit and when other approaches make more sense. The…

Growing pains shape every meaningful goal and this episode challenges you to step toward the discomfort that signals real progress. Andrew takes a simple moment with his toddler and turns it into a clear look at growth in everyday life. He highlights how personal development rarely moves forward without challenges and how each stage of improvement asks for new habits, new choices, and a willingness to face discomfort. What do you do when you feel that tension that shows up right before a breakthrough? He invites listeners to look closely at one area where progress feels slow and ask whether the resistance there is actually a signal to keep going. Growth often appears at the edge of uncertainty, yet many people mistake that edge for a warning instead of an opening. What shifts if you approach that moment with curiosity rather than avoidance? This episode encourages you to name the challenge in front of you, recognize it as part of your personal development, and choose the next small step toward the version of…

Therapy stops being mysterious when you realize it’s less about fixing your thoughts and more about learning to feel safe in your own body. Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with psychotherapist Lauren Goldberg, LCSW, for an honest look at psychotherapy and what actually helps people feel better. They talk about mental health beyond labels, how the body plays a crucial role in healing, and why anxiety isn’t a flaw to eliminate but a signal to understand. What if success at work has been your safest place to hide? What if your body already knows what your mind keeps avoiding? Lauren shares how curiosity, consistency, and a grounded therapeutic relationship can turn those questions into real progress. This conversation reframes therapy as practice, not performance—a clear, human reminder that growth comes through presence, honesty, and small moments of awareness that build lasting change. Quotes “As therapists, our personal work is very congruent with our work with clients. So, I use my own self-exploration to become a…